


Don't Shoot the Messenger

by Rikkamaru



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 08:20:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16572989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkamaru/pseuds/Rikkamaru
Summary: Ran was holding herself hostage in the Underworld and Kaito would complain more about being used as an errand boy if the guy she was staying with wasn't so cute.





	Don't Shoot the Messenger

Shinichi was flipping through paperwork when Ran burst in, heaving for breath and clearly furious. “I can’t _believe_ them!” Ran groused, throwing herself onto a hammock the plants in his garden formed at her presence and his behest.

Shinichi looked up in mild curiosity, his papers happily left alone for the time being. “Your parents not getting along again?” he guessed, and she huffed and swung harder on the hammock.

“Worse,” she growled. “They’re trying to interfere with Sera and me.”

She paused there, clearly expecting him to make a sympathetic noise or something, but Shinichi just snorted and looked back down, skimming over the names of the newly deceased he was to be expecting soon. “That’s ironic,” he muttered, “considering the centuries you’ve spent trying to get them back together.”

He didn’t have to look up to know her scowl had worsened at him, and quietly ignored the vine of thorns she’d grown to wrap around his ankle in irritation. “You’re supposed to be on my side,” she hissed at him, and he sighed and looked up again, feeding just enough intent into the vine that it died and shriveled away from him.

“Ran, I _am_ on your side,” he said patiently. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t find it funny you don’t like your parents turning the tables on you.”

She huffed at him but didn’t argue again, and he smiled a little at the far softer vine he felt wrap around him in remorse. It was silent for a few minutes, Ran deep in thought and Shinichi skimming all of the brief histories of the dead he’d been judging soon, before Ran sighed gustily again and he looked up at her. “Are we still on for that deal we made three centuries ago?” She asked, and Shinichi tried to think about what deal she was talking about before he remembered and scowled.

“ _No_ , I am _not_ marrying you. You have a loving girlfriend that would kill me for thinking about it, even though it’s _your_ idea.”

Ran brightened up a little at that and her next sigh was much more love-struck. “She would, wouldn’t she,” she mused, and Shinichi rolled his eyes. “But at this rate all she’ll ever be is my girlfriend,” she said, petulant.

“Take that up with your parents,” he grunted, writing a brief note to send one of the men to his mother as punishment. There hadn’t been a lot of adulterers recently, and the current residents were beginning to crack under the focus of the Fury. “It’s not like Sera’s a bad choice in spouse from what you’ve told me.”

“That’s true,” she said, much more composed but still smitten. “Maybe if they thought I was considering a worse prospect…” she trialed off thoughtfully and Shinichi hummed a little to indicate he was still listening. When that didn’t garner a reaction he looked up and felt a tinge of worry at the focused way she was looking at him. “Shinichi, let me stay here,” she demanded, and for a moment he considered the worst thing that could happen.

Which wasn’t very compelling, so he ignored the thought.

“Tell Sera why you’re doing this and don’t eat any of the food and sure,” he finally decided, rolling his eyes but letting a smile escape at the way the flowers around them bloomed in her excitement.

* * *

Kaito stared at his friend, stupefied. “The God of the _Underworld_ is holding the Goddess of Spring hostage,” he repeated, barely able to understand those words. “And the Goddess of the Sun hasn’t _killed him_ yet?”

Aoko shrugged but her eyes were sharp. “Apparently,” was all she said back, and Kaito bit his lip and looked over at the fold in space that let messengers like him travel easily to the Land of the Dead. “Maybe there’s more going on than we’re seeing,” she said quietly, but the way her words dipped made him roll his eyes as he looked back at her.

“Just because Akako and that bastard Hakuba figured out their shit and asked you out at the same time doesn’t mean that every incident involving three people will lead to them fucking,” he pointed out, and she scowled at him without heat.

“Regardless, would you be willing to relay messages to Ran? You’ll have the right to be down there as you’re delivering the dead to their final destination and it should be easy for you to find her.”

“Sure, but why? It sounds like whatever’s happening, the Sun Goddess is fine with,” Kaito pointed out, and that made Aoko smile for a second before the expression became fixed.

“Her parents aren’t happy she’s been abducted,” she said, and Kaito felt like he wasn’t being told a _lot_ , but refrained from pressing for now and just nodded. Aoko brightened. “Great, I’ll get the letters others wanted taken to her.”

In a matter of minutes Kaito found himself heading down to the underworld, a convoy of spirits with him and a tied together stack of papers tucked under his arm. As he passed the spirits on to the ferryman he flashed the papers in front of him. “I also have these for the Goddess of Spring,” he reported, and the man looked up from the roster of souls.

“Hm? Oh, sure. You can take those to her if you want. If she isn’t in the palace gardens just ask around.”

He bowed his head in thanks and hurried to the palace, its dark spires sticking out amidst the flat plains it was next to and small houses that were a distance away. Even now, after centuries of escorting the dead, Kaito still felt the stirring of awe and fear that the palace inspired in everyone skitter up his spine.

He ignored that feeling in favor of flying directly to the garden beside the palace and landing amidst the blood red spider lilies that grew rampant through the area, straining his ears to try and catch sound from anyone nearby. After a few seconds Kaito’s heart calmed enough and he could hear the rhythmic thump of something else nearby. He followed the sound.

What he ran into looked like something out of a mortal painting. A man was stretched out along a hammock, swinging gently in it. In his hands was a pomegranate that he threw periodically, the fruit landing back in his hand with a thump. His face was softened in thought, and the chain of glittering jewels around his neck only highlighted his naturally sharp features.

He looked otherworldly.

Kaito swallowed back the urge to reach out and touch the being and instead cleared his throat. The being – was this the king of the underworld? He’d never gotten a look at him unobscured before – snapped his head over and narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?” He demanded, shifting his weight until he was sitting up in the hammock and facing Kaito. After a hard stare at Kaito’s face something like surprise or recognition passed over his features and most of his hostility faded away. “The God of Travel? Last I checked you’re meant to deliver the departed to my ferryman. What are you doing so far in my domain?”

He didn’t sound bothered by it now that he’d identified him but Kaito still offered the other man a small, extravagant bow. “Forgive me for not announcing myself, your Majesty,” he said, and the other nodded at him to continue. “I have some letters for the Goddess of Spring.” Again he presented the letters but the king didn’t even look at them before he was leveraging himself out of the hammock.

“Wonderful, I’ll take you to her then,” he said, and Kaito hummed but kept pace with the man as they walked through the garden.

“Your garden looks quite lovely,” Kaito said, unwilling to stay quiet as they walked by plants whose flowers seemed unnatural and trees that had seams of glittering crystals running the length of their trunks.

The king’s face brightened with a small smile that took Kaito’s breath away. “Thank you, they’re all ones my family and I cultivated. At least, they _were_.” He rolled his eyes a little and Kaito was about to ask what that meant when they went under the limbs of a wisteria tree whose petals glowed and chimed like bells and suddenly found himself in a very beautiful, very _mortal_ garden.

The Goddess of Spring was sitting in the middle of the garden, rolling a stalk of wheat between her fingers. She looked curious at the king’s presence until her eyes landed on Kaito and she brightened. “Letters?” she asked, and the king shrugged while Kaito moved in front of him to pass them off to her.

“Yup,” he chirped, his mind whirling as he tried to figure out what was happening, why the Goddess of Spring was so relaxed while the God of the Underworld had retreated to lean against the wisteria tree from before. They didn’t seem upset with each other, and they weren’t giving off “captor and hostage” vibes, so Kaito wasn’t too sure what to do. It was one thing to have Aoko tell him everything was fine, it was quite another to see it himself. “Your intended misses you,” he settled on saying, and her smile grew even brighter as she opened the letter from said goddess.

“That’s sweet of her,” she commented, and the God of the Underworld snorted a little. When she shifted to send him a glare Kaito snuck a glance at him again and barely resisted the urge to stare.

The king was cutting into the pomegranate he’d been throwing around earlier, a knife of carved obsidian cradled in his hand, and as he removed the top and cut along the sides Kaito could see that every single seed was glowing gold, the juice replaced with the Nectar of the gods. As he looked up and stared back at both of them, Kaito looked away but was just slow enough to watch him pop some of the seeds into his mouth.

The rest of the visit was rather short, Kaito engaging her in conversation and telling her of the goings on atop the mountain while the king (Kaito learned his name was Shinichi and nearly had a heart attack at the smile he got for calling him that) stood a ways away, listening and contributing but never getting closer, as if repelled by the natural plant life the Goddess of Spring (who insisted she be called Ran) was creating.

Ran picked up on his constant glances to where Shinichi was lurking and smiled, the expression kind. “Don’t worry, he just knows I’m a bit homesick and the plants make me feel better.”

Kaito was surprised they were actually bringing up the other god’s behavior but wasn’t going to let the moment go to waste. “So he can’t come over?”

She shrugged. “If he does it’ll twist the plants so that they can survive living down here on their own, which defeats the whole point of making something that reminds me of home.” While she sounded dismissive Kaito glanced around again and it was like having a filter removed from his eyes. Where before he’d seen a stark line of difference between the mortal world’s plants and the underworld’s, now he could see the way the darkness crept in and out at the perimeter, the way the plants twisted into the beautiful but unnatural plants he’d seen coming here only to be stopped by the goddess’ influence.

Shinichi didn’t say anything as he bent down to pluck a flower that more resembled a piece of carved ivory, but Kaito thought he saw something forlorn cross over the king’s features. Kaito turned back to Ran to find her looking at him, surprised but contemplative, and hoped the blood he felt rushing to his face wasn’t noticeable.

When it was time for him to go Kaito bid the goddess farewell and promised to come back for her replies and to pass on any more messages, before following Shinichi back out. They’d only walked for a little bit before Kaito took a deep breath. “She doesn’t look happy here,” he said, and Shinichi hummed.

“She isn’t,” the king agreed, and Kaito floundered for a second at the other god’s honesty.

“Then why is she down here?” Why are you holding her here, he didn’t ask, because at this point it was clear something more was going on.

“Her parents don’t approve of her intended,” Shinichi told him, unbothered. “So she’s staying here in protest, and to demonstrate that there are worse options for her than the Goddess of the Sun.”

“I don’t think you’re that bad,” Kaito half-joked, surprised at the wording, and felt his heart flutter a little at the surprised look he was shot, Shinichi’s cheeks gaining a hint of red.

“Her parents do,” was all Shinichi said back, looking flustered, and Kaito was surprised at the stirring of hope he felt at the looks the other was throwing him.

“Well hopefully this will resolve itself soon; I don’t think she wants to be down here much longer,” Kaito said, and Shinichi hummed back in agreement.

“ _I_ don’t want her down here much longer,” he added, and Kaito couldn’t help but laugh at the exaggerated look of stress and irritation on Shinichi’s face, forcing his breath not to catch at the way the corners of Shinichi’s eyes crinkled as if pleased with getting such a reaction. They were at the edge of the garden when the king spoke again. “The faster those messages get sent the faster this will end,” he added, and Kaito blinked at him.

“Are you saying make my visits quick and to the point?” he asked, confused by the shift, but Shinichi just shook his head.

“I’m saying visit often,” he clarified, before handing Kaito a rose as red as the one on his suit, only the petals shimmered as if shadows were racing along them.

Kaito stared at it, stunned, as Shinichi bowed his head in farewell and disappeared back into the looming foliage. After a moment Kaito grinned widely and replaced his rose with the new one before racing to the portal back to the mortal realm.

While he hadn’t really considered it before, the chemistry, the happiness, the thrill of talking with Shinichi, but it all made sense.

For who else was a better fit for a God of Riches than a God of Thieves?

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this feels open-ended, I mostly just needed to get this out of my system so I could write a _different_ Greek AU.


End file.
